DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1645Z April 21, 2010
Northern Gulf of Mexico: A hot spot and smoke plume can be seen in satellite imagery from the oil rig explosion and fire in the northern Gulf of Mexico off the southeastern Louisiana coast. The thin to locally moderately dense smoke plume is fanning out as it moves in a southeasterly direction. South Central Canada/Northern and Central Plains/Great Lakes Region/Ohio Valley: GOES visible imagery this morning shows an area of aerosol stretching from Saskatchewan Province in south central Canada southeastward across the Dakotas to southern Minnesota and Iowa. The aerosol also extended farther to the east and southeast to at least as far as the Ohio Valley. It is believed that leftover smoke from the large number of daily fires burning across south central Canada, the Dakotas, and western Minnesota are responsible for at least a portion of this aerosol. The National Weather Service Air Quality Forecast Guidance product also indicates smoke across much of this region... http://www.nws.noaa.gov/aq/sectors/conus.php JS THE FORMAT OF THIS TEXT PRODUCT IS BEING MODIFIED. IT WILL NO LONGER DESCRIBE THE VARIOUS PLUMES THAT ARE ASSOCIATED WITH ACTIVE FIRES. THESE PLUMES ARE DEPICTED IN VARIOUS GRAPHIC FORMATS ON OUR WEB SITE: JPEG: http://www.osdpd.noaa.gov/ml/land/hms.html GIS: http://www.firedetect.noaa.gov/viewer.htm KML: http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/FIRE/kml.html THIS TEXT PRODUCT WILL CONTINUE TO DESCRIBE SIGNIFICANT AREAS OF SMOKE WHICH HAVE BECOME DETACHED FROM AND DRIFTED SOME DISTANCE AWAY FROM THE SOURCE FIRE, TYPICALLY OVER THE COURSE OF ONE OR MORE DAYS. IT WILL ALSO STILL INCLUDE DESCRIPTIONS OF BLOWING DUST. ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS REGARDING THESE CHANGES OR THE SMOKE TEXT PRODUCT IN GENERAL SHOULD BE SENT TO SSDFireTeam@noaa.gov